NYT Editorial: The Economy and the Blame …. The problem with Mr. Romney’s “blame Obama” mantra is that Mr. Obama is not responsible for the deep and protracted recession that predated his administration and is at the root of the persistently high unemployment. Job creation under Mr. Obama’s term far outpaced the job growth following the first recession of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2001. New evidence released this week showed recent employment has been stronger than previously tallied.

…. The challenge is to foster the recovery and then put the budget on a sustainable path. Meeting the first challenge requires a belief that government has a stimulative role to play at times of economic weakness and a willingness to play it, which only Mr. Obama has demonstrated. Meeting the budget challenge requires raising taxes, which Mr. Obama is prepared to do but Mr. Romney is not.

He has assumed voters will reject Mr. Obama because of the weak economy. They may well re-elect him because the economy needs more help.

Dana Milbank: Meet Willard Mitt Romney, champion of the common man ….. When it comes to speaking up for the downtrodden, Romney isn’t just another man of the people. He is the Rolls-Royce of populists.

With evidence building that his prospects have been hurt by his dismissal of nearly half the country as moochers, Romney has been making it his job to worry about the 47 percent of Americans he famously said it wasn’t his job to worry about.

But when such an appeal is attempted by a man who has painstakingly crafted for himself a public image combining Scrooge McDuck and Thurston Howell III, there is bound to be a certain amount of awkwardness and inconsistency…..

…. Why the Baron of Bain would be making a late appeal to the downtrodden is obvious. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Americans regard Romney’s “47 percent” remarks negatively, 54 percent to 32 percent. Respondents who self-describe as independent, the all-important demographic, regarded the comments even more negatively.

Charles Blow: Mitt Romney is losing badly. And he has only himself to blame. Not only is he trailing President Obama in almost every national poll, he’s trailing in almost every poll of swing states.

What is the Republican response? That there must be some magical, maniacal skew in the numbers, and the skew must be a conscious effort by a scheming, elite media to dampen Republican enthusiasm.

…. This is just an extension of the Republican war on facts. If you find a truth disagreeable, simply deny it. Call it corrupt. Suggest that it is little more than one side of a story — an opinionated, biased one — and insist that there is another explanation. The base will buy it.

You’ve sunk my battleship! That popular phrase ran endlessly in long-ago TV commercials promoting the board-game version of naval warfare. Now, that battleground has morphed into a digital shootout that could tip the balance of the presidential campaign.

The Obama team has targeted Battleship and 17 other online games—including Scrabble, Tetris, and Madden NFL 13—in highly contested swing states to woo legions of early voters.

By placing ads alongside these popular titles by Electronic Arts, the president’s campaign hopes to replicate the past success of this strategy. In 2008, surveys found that gamers who saw political ads were 120 percent more likely to have a positive reaction to the candidate, and 50 percent more likely to consider casting a vote for him.

Those who click are transported to GottaVote.com or GottaRegister.com, which are Obama/Biden sites…..